The popular iOS game is getting a PC version with bonus Team Fortress 2-themed content included. Players of both versions will be able to compete cross-platform; owners of both versions will have unlocked content from one available on both.

You can now purchase a $30 replica of the star of Valve's Meet the Pyro video. That's right, not the Pyro itself: the Balloonicorn, nature's most majestic and impractical animal.

Available from Valve's store, as you reach for your wallet, remember: you're about to pay $30 for a 13-inch balloon.

INFLATABLE BALLOONICORN [Valve]

Meet the Sandvich, a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive piece of Team Fortress 2 history. ThreeA Toys' masterful creation is so limited you'll have to make an appointment to buy it.

That's right, one does not simply walk up to a booth and ask for Sandvich. Sanvich asks to see you, and only after you set an appointment for purchase at ThreeA's Bambaland Store starting at 9PM Eastern. You'll pick the day and time to meet Sandvich, and at the appointed time it will become yours.

How much is Sandvich? This is silly question. You cannot put price tag on such majesty. Not until 9PM.

A trio of heroes armed with powerful new weapons against the man (or woman) that would burn everything they've built to the ground. Day Two of Team Fortress 2's Pyromania update has me feeling the drama. I mean hell, just look at that still from "Meet the Pyro" up top. Oh yeah, I'm feeling it.

I haven't been keeping up with the lore surrounding Team Fortress 2 very well at all, mainly because I'm not particularly good at playing it. I'm not-too-shabby with the Scout and Soldier, but anything beyond that is also beyond me.

But when I see an image like this, I really want to get into it.

That's the top of the City on Fire page linked in the Pyromania Day Two post on the Team Fortress blog. The writing accompanying the image describes Downtown Teufort, a city filled with sewage just ripe for a fiery cleansing.

The remainder of the update details new weapons for the Scout, Soldier, Sniper and Pyro, the latter getting a the flare gun seen in the "Meet the Pyro" scene above. I want to fire that in your face.

See? I'm in the spirit of things now.

City on Fire [Team Fortress 2]

Team Fortress 2 fans will finally "Meet the Pyro" in "less than three days," according to the official blog for Valve's popular multiplayer game. (A countdown clock seems to place the debut at 2pm ET this Wednesday.) This may tie into Valve's tease last week that it was teaming up with the Cartoon Network's Adult Swim for... something.

To celebrate, Valve will release a new TF2 map and mode called Doomsday, which has players on the Blu and Red teams competing to transport the precious element Australium to famed (and assumed dead) monkeynaut Poopy Joe's rocket so that he might win the simian space race against his rival Vladamir Bananas.

The new Doomsday mode will add 11 more achievements for the Steam version of the game. Valve is promising more TF2 news over the next couple of days, leading to the premiere of the new Pyro video.

There have been "Meet The..." animated shorts for the eight other character classes in Team Fortress 2, but none released since June 2011's Meet the Medic. The wait for the Pyro, has been a long one.

Pyromania: Day One [TF2 official blog]

Yanis Varoufakis, the economist Valve recently hired to study Team Fortress 2's virtual economy, has published his first paper. If you are not an economist and suffer from insomnia, you might consider giving this a close read.

If not, and you're looking for a bit of news out if, this bit of speculation was all I could pry from the conclusion. It followed nearly 3,500 words explaining arbitrage and equilibrium, which more or less describes the ability to buy or an acquire an item at low cost and sell or trade it for high return, as opposed to a market where these opportunities are much more limited.

"I think this is fun to see. The tantalising thought also comes to mind that we could, perhaps, let you see this graph in real time, to guide your trading," Varoufakis wrote. "Or perhaps not? What do you think?"

Great. Is Team Fortress 2 getting an in-game commodities ticker?

ARBITRAGE AND EQUILIBRIUM IN THE TEAM FORTRESS 2 ECONOMY [Valve Economics]

Can't really make it out, but it sounds like we might finally get a "Meet the Pyro" video soon. [TeamFortress.com]

Valve, the people who make Team Fortress 2, and Adult Swim, the beloved block of Cartoon Network shows for grown-ups, are teaming up for something TF2-related. It's happening next week. That's all we know! Fail to learn much more here.

Cam Fortress doesn't really "do" anything, but it does let you pretend to sneak up on someone on the subway platform with your Spy switchblade drawn, or carry Pyro's flamethrower to a gas station. Developed and launched on Google Play for Android phones, Cam Fortress launched last week, and is free to download.

You may take screenshots of your escapades, but there's no other functionality—though the app's description says you can unlock a "hidden class" if you discover an Easter egg. All nine TF2 classes are featured either in the video or the release notes, so who knows what that is.

Cam Fortress [Google Play]

The creators of Team Fortress 2 have hired their very own economist to help out with their various crazy hat-based projects.

Writing on his new blog over at Valve's website, newly-minted consultant Yanis Varoufakis discusses how he met with Valve chief Gabe Newell and put a deal together.

"Within hours, an agreement was reached: I would become, in some capacity (that was to be hammered out later), Valve's economist-in-residence," he writes.

"My intention at Valve, beyond performing a great deal of data mining, experimentation, and calibration of services provided to customers on the basis of such empirical findings, is to to go one step beyond; to forge narratives and empirical knowledge that (a) transcend the border separating the ‘real' from the digital economies, and (b) bring together lessons from the political economy of our gamers' economies and from studying Valve's very special (and fascinating) internal management structure."

And hats. Never forget hats.

IT ALL BEGAN WITH A STRANGE EMAIL [Valve]